10. Nightmares In A Damaged Brain
Also known as Blood Splash, Skizo, or Nightmare, Romano Scavolini's Nightmares in a Damaged Brain is steeped in controversial history. Immediately banned for its grotesque content, the film gained further infamy when its producer David Hamilton-Grant was arrested and sentenced to imprisonment for releasing an extended version of the film, which failed to adhere to the cuts previously imposed by the censorship boards. Nightmares in a Damaged Brain is vivaciously violent, summarised aptly by the final frame, where a young boy who has just killed his father winks into the camera as his mother screams in horror. A twisted gore-fest, Scavolini's film put the 'nasty' in Video Nasty with its unabashed incorporation of sick violence into characters within an immediate family, as opposed to the simple hacking of random victims. The film continues to do the rounds among the underground horror circuit in its crackling, low-budget form, and remains a truly scandalous piece of horror filmmaking.